Campaign website: Linda.Vote
Education: J.D. Catholic University Columbus School of Law, Washington, D.C; Certificate International Public/Private Law, Peace Palace Court of International Law, The Hague, Netherlands; BA College of Wooster, Ohio; Jr Year Abroad Jorge Tadeo Lozano University of Bogota, Colombia; Washington Semester on Capitol Hill, American University, Washington, D.C. Salutatorian, Paw Paw High School, Paw Paw Michigan.
Occupation: Retired U.S. Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State.
Work history past 15 years. List in reverse chronological order.
Retired 2014 –
U.S. Foreign Service, U.S. Department of State, Senior Diplomat Public Affairs Officer serving in Bogota, Colombia; Montevideo, Uruguay; Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Lima, Peru.
Assistant Inspector General for Congressional & Media Affairs and legal counsel, U.S. Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of State
Attorney, small business practice, Washington, D.C.
Why are you running for this office and what specifically makes you a better candidate than your opponent?
I am a mother, a small business attorney, former Assistant Inspector General and senior diplomat with 30 years of experience working to make our government work for people. As an attorney for small businesses and mother of three young children, I fought redlining and discrimination, and helped establish universal Pre-K in D.C. public schools. As an Assistant IG, I was a “watchdog” working on a bipartisan basis for legislation that would serve U.S. taxpayers and strengthen our rule of law to protect people. With audits, inspections and investigations, I fought for good governance against corruption, to hold our public officials accountable if they use their public office for personal gain. As a senior diplomat, I represented all Americans to bridge our cultural, educational and economic divide so that we could build a better future together.
I believe that our elected officials hold a sacred trust with All of the people whom they are elected to serve. We need and deserve a representative we can trust to do the right thing for people, and dedicate our taxpayer resources to do the most good, not service political stunts or special interests. This trust has been bitterly broken; I have heard this every day as I knock on doors to register voters. We need a representative to solve problems and give priority to the urgent needs of our hardworking homeowners, residents and workers, rather than waste time and treasure on an agenda that hurts us all, upends our daily lives and threatens legal turmoil. I have the independent experience, skillset and compassion to solve real problems for real people, and restore the trust and respect our voters deserve.
What are the three most important issues facing your legislative district?
First, insurance and Homeowners affordability – Voters are concerned that, in spite of three (taxpayer paid) legislative sessions, including a special session scheduled too late for a fix before the June 1st deadline for new insurance rates, and a record $112 state budget, there has been no relief for the unprecedented skyrocketing increases in insurance premiums and homeowners costs. Many homeowners have had their policies cancelled altogether. While the sudden jump in costs is unprecedented — like our affordable housing and healthcare — this “crises” has been the making for years by lawmakers who have neglected their duty to take measures to prevent or at least alleviate this gut punch to homeowners.
Second, reproductive rights and privacy – Voters are concerned about the impact of the recent legislative mandates that negate basic personal privacy rights, and impose a political agenda into deeply personal decisions concerning women’s reproductive rights, health and the well-being of our families.
Third, voters are concerned with public safety. With a niece who is Chief of Police in Michigan, and as an Assistant IG law enforcement officer with criminal investigations as part of our OIG oversight responsibilities, I am familiar with the challenges and demands on our first responders and the heavy responsibility they bear in responding to our citizen’s concerns for public safety. This challenge has been exacerbated, by the increase in gun ownership which heightens the danger for our public safety as well as to those who shoulder the responsibility of protecting us. Verbal arguments over parking spaces, loud music or grocery store lines now quickly escalate into deadly confrontations. A state preemption prevents municipalities from enacting ordinances to keep guns out of parks, playgrounds or other areas at churches attached to schools, and a provision to allow guns on college campuses have been proposed for three straight years. I believe it is the interests of public safety and the safety of our first responders to pass common sense gun safety laws that would keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them.
Did Joe Biden legitimately win the 2020 presidential election and why or why not?
Yes
Should state abortion laws include exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking, and why or why not?
Yes. Victims of crime like rape, incest or human trafficking should be protected not punished or their lives endangered. The incumbent has voted against any exceptions for rape, incest or human trafficking. No matter how we personally feel about abortion, the decision of if and when to start a family is deeply personal, and politicians have no place in that decision. Every pregnancy and situation is different and we cannot possibly know all of the factors involved in this deeply personal decision. Unfortunately, as we have seen across the country over the past several months since the Dobbs decision, women’s lives are endangered as doctors hands are tied by laws that impede and delay their ability to act in the best interests of their patients. The United States already has the highest maternal mortality rate among the world’s industrialized nations, and this law will only exacerbate that tragic statistic for preventable deaths. Florida’s constitutional privacy provision has long been held protect this privacy. Lawsuits are now challenging Florida’s 15-week ban on abortion that has no exception for victims of the crimes of rape, incest or human trafficking, based on our fundamental rights for freedom of religion. A pillar of our democracy is that we do not have the right to impose our personal religious beliefs on others. Our religious liberty is a right to believe, speak and act in accordance with our beliefs, only so long as we do not infringe upon the rights of others. Particularly in decisions so personal for women regarding our own bodies, health and safety, a state law that imposes one particular religious belief on the rest of us – and imposes a government mandate on vital decisions with our doctors –puts all of us, our health, and our families in grave danger.
Should the Legislature investigate Florida Power & Light for the actions of its consultants in recruiting “ghost” candidates, and why or why not?
Floridians absolutely need and deserve an independent investigation of actions by FPL consultants, but an investigation by the Florida legislature under current leadership is unlikely to be “independent” or free of the conflicts of interests that gave rise to these actions. Tampa Bay U.S. Representative Kathy Castor has asked the Department of Justice to investigate the company. This step would ensure the independence required to evaluate the findings of extensive investigative reporting that uncovered the network nonprofit groups to defeat Senator Jose Javier Rodriguez after he proposed breaking FPL’s monopoly by allowing landlords to sell affordable rooftop solar directly to their tenants. Under current leadership, it would be difficult for a Florida legislative investigation to escape the extensive tentacles of the $5.4 million in political contributions from FPL to candidates in Florida (including $400,000 to Senate President Simpson and $25,000 in campaign contributions to Attorney General Ashley Moody), to get to the bottom of communications between FPL’s CEO and consultants who were tasked to defeat incumbent state Sen Rodriguez. The consultants recruited an independent “ghost” candidate who siphoned enough votes to defeat in Sen Rodriguez. His proposal would allow customers to bypass FPL and thereby bypass FPL’s monopoly on selling electricity to almost 6 million Floridians, making FPL the largest utility in the country. An independent investigation of FPL and its political activities is especially important as the state’s Public Service Commissioner, (with a newly appointed majority and a newly appointed Pubic Counsel) appointed the governor and approved by the Senate, approved a raise last year that will have customers paying some $4.9 billion more for electricity over the next few years.
Do you support or oppose a proposed “open carry” or “constitutional carry” gun law for Florida and why or why not?
I do not support an “open carry” or “constitutional carry” gun law for Florida. As an Everytown endorsed candidate, a volunteer with the Broward chapter of Moms Action for Gun Sense, and particularly in the wake of the Stoneman-Douglas school and Pulse nightclub massacres, I believe it is the responsibility of elected officials to protect us and promote public safety. Gun deaths are now the number ONE cause of death for children and the most lethal means of suicide. In the U.S. 48,832 people died from gunshot wounds in 2021, and in 2022, this number is now over 140 every day (average 2,849 in Florida). The US has the highest gun suicide rate of any country in the world with 24,000 each year or 70% of all gun deaths. I have lobbied for common sense gun safety laws, walked door to door to gather petitions for an assault weapons ban, and distributed gun locks to families where guns and children are present. Common sense gun safety laws would include universal background checks for all sales or transfer of guns, including closing the gun show loophole and background checks on gun buyers; strengthening red flag laws which would enable family members as well as law enforcement to petition a court for temporary removal of guns from people who pose a risk to themselves or others, and safe storage requirements in cars and in homes with children present. While gun purchases have increased, there is broad public support for universal background checks and we know that they work. FBI data indicate that background checks blocked nearly twice as many gun sales in 2020, than in the year before; about 42% of those denials were because the would-be buyers had felony convictions on their records. In Florida, the Commission of Agriculture denied some 9,000 concealed weapons licenses last year to people who posed a pubic danger. While the DC v. Heller case has been cited by gun-rights advocates, Justice Scalia’s opinion underscored the authority of states to regulate with “longstanding prohibitions” to prevent felons and mentally ill people from possessing guns. Just public safety requires us fasten our seatbelts, we need common sense measures for responsible gun ownership and universal background checks to protect us from those who pose a danger to themselves or to us all, as we go about our daily lives to school or elsewhere.
Do you support Governor DeSantis’ use of public funds in the state budget to transport migrants from Texas to Massachusetts, and why or why not?
No. Whether or not this a misappropriation of funds, or violates state regulations, or any criminal statutes for kidnapping or trafficking, is a matter that is under investigation. The fact that the Governor has used public funds to charter two planes at a cost of $615,000 (with some $950,000 pending in a contract for other “projects”) for the transport migrants (from Texas to Massachusetts) who are in the US legally, is one more in a series of abusive stunts in which the Governor has used his Florida public office to advance his Presidential political ambitions at the expense of hard-working, taxpaying-Floridians and many others. Unfortunately Floridians have become numb to the abuse. But we must ask once again, what is the moral compass of an elected official who so blatantly insults our humanity and abuses men, women and children who have escaped their dictatorial regimes, suffered through untold horrors and misery to reach these United States, only to be herded into airplanes for a largely unknown destination. The $615,000 for charter planes could have been more appropriately used to invest in education, housing, food or anything that would provide a better future for them or others. The real question as to the moral compass of this elected person that is so chilling is what other cruel schemes is he capable of? With a legislature that has ceded its role as a check and balance of power on the executive, and a judiciary that he has appointed and demonstrated willingness to cede its independence, where are the customary institutions of our democracy that would otherwise prevent such stunts because of their viable checks on an abuse of power? Where are the restraints on his hunger for power, revenge, abuse of the rule of law or just plain inhumanity to people he can only see as “unwanted migrants,” less than human “others” for whom he encourages collective vengeance because they have had the audacity to come to the US to escape violence and life-threatening situations? Floridians have become all too familiar with his initiatives to bully students; ban books; erase our history and the existence of people who do not look, live or believe in the same cultural values as he does; retaliate against businesses that train their employees to work more effectively together; criminalize the actions of people exercising their First Amendment rights and tolerate a driver who may happen to drive into the crowd and kill someone. As an elected official who has utterly failed to address any of the urgent homeowners crises of our day; cut our housing affordability trust fund in half last year in the middle of a housing crisis; destroyed our fair districting laws by erasing two U.S. Congressional seats for people of color and grabbing 20 of the 28 U.S. Congressional districts; failed to call out swastika-bearing marchers in our own state, and even included in his voter suppression law that third parties cannot give food or water to people standing in line to vote, why would we expect this person to offer any humanity or comfort to those who struggling to follow a legal process for asylum? The fundamental question is, will Floridian voters wake up to the underlying dictatorial nature that his treatment of these refugee seekers belies? Will Floridians wake up to the fact that these individuals are seeking refuge from dictators who have consolidated their control with the very same tactics of our Governor?
What specific new measures do you support to address the property insurance crisis?
As homeowners watched 3 legislative sessions end – including a special session to address our skyrocketing property insurance crisis—and still no “fix,” we have learned about the contributing factors that our legislature has simply kicked down the road for years. Our legislature has failed to take meaningful steps to change the trend of increased costs. Homeowners are now bearing the brunt as these costs are passed on to the consumer. These factors include climate change, roof replacement fraud that has contributed in part to Florida representing approximately 70% of the cases nationally, and attorney-fee multipliers that have driven up the costs for insurance companies and driven many insurers out of Florida altogether. The legislature has taken some measures to address the roofing fraud and accompanying litigation, and this year increased catastrophic reinsurance funds, but our insurance companies are still going bankrupt. For many reasons, including our insurance costs, our legislature must take real steps to address climate change head-on with a goal to reduce carbon and methane emissions and a real plan of action to meet that goal. Clean energy is part of the solution that, in the near term, would help reduce consumer’s energy costs and provide thousands of good paying jobs that should be the basis of the Sunshine state’s economy. Mitigation of greenhouse gases would directly affect climate change to help reduce the wind and more violent storms as well as help reduce the sea level rise that is threatening our homes, infrastructure and clean water. Mitigation strategies will address climate change; our legislature has focused only on adaptation to rising seas, building higher sea walls and resilience strategies where the costs will continue to multiply. Make no mistake, we need adaptation in the near term, but these costs will only continue to grow if we do not also reduce emissions. In the near and long term, Florida must have a state-wide goal to reduce greenhouse gases and a real plan to meet that goal. These actions are needed now, but this relief for homeowners will take some time, and many have already lost their insurance, are out of funds, or have decided to pack it up and leave Florida too. A more immediate solution would be to require the major, well-financed national auto-insurance companies that have millions of customers in Florida to also provide homeowners insurance. Like many homeowners, I was surprised last year when I tried to bundle my auto and homeowners policies and was told this was not possible. Given the millions in advertising urging customers to do just that, perhaps it’s time for our legislature to require these insurance companies to live up to their advertising and allow home-owners in Florida to bundle their auto and property insurance – just like the advertisements say!
Starting next year, the massive flow of federal money that swelled Florida’s budget to $110 billion will start drying up. How should Florida cope with that loss of money?
Governor DeSantis has been circling the entire country bashing President Biden and handing out millions of dollars in Florida, that he has to spend thanks to the Biden administration and the Democrat’s American Rescue Plan to deliver help to real people. GOP members in the US Congress voted against this funding. Over the past two years, the Biden administration priorities have increased Florida’s reserves and funded the governor’s job growth program, climate ‘resilience” against rising waters, road projects, broadband expansion, college training programs and tax cuts. While bashing the federal funds as “Washington at its worst,” and inflationary, in fact this funding has saved Floridians from the worst impacts of Covid and the inaction of our state legislature to head off our current crises in housing and insurance. Florida has a record $110 billion budget this year thanks to the billions from the Biden administration for infrastructure to fix aging road and bridges that provide jobs, upgrade our airports, ports and waterways, funds for Everglades restoration and clean water, investment in our internet for rural area, child care credits, bonuses for first responders and housing, funds for electric vehicle recharging station, tax credits to homeowners for clean energy upgrades and even the October $200 million state gas tax holiday.
Once these funds dry up, Floridians need our legislature to do three things they have refused to do over the past decade: 1) expand Medicaid, 2) use the (Sadowsky) affordable housing trust fund for its intended purpose, and 3) use the millions in tax rebates each year to the largest corporations to invest in education. Medicaid: Florida ranks third in the country for the number of uninsured people while our legislature has refused to expand Medicaid that would bring billions of Federal dollars into the state to pay for their coverage, reduce costs for everyone, and save lives. This would drive down the costs because newly insured people would have access to preventive care instead of the most costly alternative at the emergency room and, these newly insured would be under the negotiated rates for their care rather than the tax write-offs that hospitals can claim for their care. As other states with expanded Medicaid have found, this helps communities across the board as hard-working Floridians who struggle to pay rent and other costs, would have the resources to keep them healthy and able to work. Sadowski Fund: For two decades, our legislature has swept our affordable housing fund trust fund and used this for other purposes. Our area has become the highest cost-burdened in the country with families paying over 50% of their income for housing. Yet last year, in the middle of our housing crisis, the Governor cut this fund in half. These actions have contributed to our current “crisis” despite the fact that taxpayers have been contributing to this fund for years, since 1992, with their document stamp taxes. We need to restore these taxpayer funds to their intended purpose and reverse state preemptions that have made it harder for municipalities to address affordable housing. Tax Rebates: Tax rebates for major corporations like Amazon have been a priority of our legislature. Last year these rebates to major corporations were over $500 million and this year were over $600 million. Eliminating these annual tax corporate rebates and other special agreements would bring millions or more into our state funding. My preference would be to allocate these resources to provide the funding for our public schools that our children and teachers need and deserve. Despite being the 3rd largest economy in the country, Florida still ranks 48th in funding for education. We need to prevent another crisis, and invest in our future with the high quality education our children need and deserve. Investing our resources in education rather than corporate donors, will truly help Florida keep its technological edge and, boost our economy with talented and highly trained workers, who can succeed and compete globally.
Have you been arrested, charged or convicted of a crime, had an adjudication withheld or had a matter sealed or expunged? If yes, please explain.
No
Have you been a plaintiff or defendant in a civil action, including bankruptcy or foreclosure or had a restraining order issued against you? If so, please explain.
No
